


Defying Expectations

by squid (triesquid)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Angst, Carson Beckett - Freeform, M/M, Musician Rodney McKay, Ori, Radek Zelenka - Freeform, Rodney chucks everything, Sam Carter - Freeform, the Stargate program goes public, victory via retrovirus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-09
Updated: 2012-12-09
Packaged: 2017-11-20 18:00:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/588154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triesquid/pseuds/squid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes doing what we think we should be doing leads us to what we are actually supposed to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defying Expectations

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for: Atlantis "Instinct" and "Before I Sleep", Stargate "Redemption", "Origin", and "The Ties That Bind".
> 
> Author's Notes: Always thanks to my beta, whee71 [used to be whee].
> 
> *Originally published on Wraithbait.

When the Atlantis Expedition finally defeated the Wraith via Carson's retrovirus, it seemed anti-climatic and less a victory than an alchemical transmutation.  
  
Rodney congratulated Carson. Drank. Snarked. Oogled the women.  
  
He still had nightmares.  


* * *

  
  
When the SGC called Rodney back to Earth to help with the offensive against the Ori, he went.  
  
Just for a few months, they said. Then, back to Pegasus, Atlantis, and the people he had left.  
  
Rodney was there for six years.  


* * *

  
  
When the Stargate Program _finally_ went public, Rodney did the interviews with his usual charm and snark.  
  
He published four books. One, he co-wrote with Radek. Another, he co-wrote with Sam.  
  
He missed Atlantis.  


* * *

  
  
When the SGC decided that they wanted to send Rodney back to Atlantis, he refused.  
  
He quit the Stargate Program.  
  
He quit physics.  
  
He defied expectations.  


* * *

  
  
When Rodney quit, he moved to Chicago and did something he had never thought he'd do again.  
  
He began to play the piano.  
  
At first, it was just a little on the odd day.  
  
But the time kept increasing until Rodney found he had been playing the better part of six hours.  
  
Then, it was a few nights a week at a piano bar.  
  
Then— _then_ —he began to compose.  
  
Notes and chords and melodies poured out of his pen in a torrent—perfect mathematical compositions filled with shadow and smoke and whimsy.  
  
He had art.  
  
He didn't enjoy it as much as he though he should.  


* * *

  
  
When he was signed to record an album, he had to restrain the urge to build one of Janus' time machines and go back to see the old bat that had crushed him so thoroughly and say 'nah, nah."  
  
He didn't resist the urge to call John and tell him.  


* * *

  
  
When John appeared at Rodney's door, Rodney, for once, didn't think, didn't agonize, didn't panic.  
  
He pulled John inside and kissed him.  
  
And when one of John's arms circled his waist to press a hand against his back and the other cradled the base of Rodney's skull, Rodney felt his expectations melt away.  
  
John had defied his expectations.


End file.
